Cancel culture backlash begins....

[highame]

I don't know if anyone has a subscription and can do a link but the Times 2 Supplement has a double page spread. Damien Whitworth writes about Steven Pinker, one of the signatories of letter to Harpers also Julia Llewellyn Smith about cancel culture. Interesting

Hope this works. My first time trying. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/steven-pinker-i-had-to-speak-out-cancel-culture-is-orwellian-sr2q03nh6

Well done, it did work. I enjoyed the read of both pages. Image, a 2 page spread on cancel culture but it is about time. There's so much stuff out there now. Used to have to wait weeks for mainstream media but now hearing a lot more. This is good

This also ties in with the virtue signalling knee-jerk reactions from corporations and institutions, when an angry twitter mob demand someone be cancelled.

Both these articles discuss this issue:

medium.com/@buffsoldier_96/the-genius-of-woke-capitalism-5d29c6fee6ac?source=social.fb

reason.com/2020/07/08/the-reaction-to-the-harpers-letter-on-cancel-culture-proves-why-it-was-necessary/

It's pretty good.I find PInker a bit annoying at times, but he's right about this. I believe he's already been consigned to the alt-right by progressives though.

Forbes ...

www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2020/07/07/jk-rowling-has-transcended-into-a-living-meme/#1e3dc8fb3e9a

That Forbes link is an entirely negative rant about JK Rowling, just in case anyone doesn’t want to read transactivist negativity.

Yes, the Forbes link shows just how much more work there is to do on this score. It is totally selective and ignores the extreme responses to JKR.

The comments this has provoked on social media are more hopeful, if that is what you seek. Lots of acknowledgement there of what has been done to JKR.

Perhaps a sign of the mismatch between the publishers/press and the readers?

I've found most of Pinker's subsequent work since 'the language instinct' really weak, poorly argued and dubious.

Doesn't matter, really - the point remains the same.

The times link asks me to subscribe. Would anyone be able to repost with a share token?

Here you go

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/89116f4a-c149-11ea-a824-905810f36b8c?shareToken=150561b10deb75b54a550692f15ec768

David Aaronovitch @daaronovitch
One last plea for the moment. It is a terrible mistake - as well as being wrong in itself - for the mainstream Left to abandon the robust defence of free speech. It leaves the Right to colonise the issue and gives authoritarians an alibi.

Nick Cohen @nickcohen4
True, and I'm sure the right will make them regret it. But no one can deny that progressives are eager to censor and regard even the mildest defences of free speech as suspect.

@RedToothBrush

David Aaronovitch *@daaronovitch* One last plea for the moment. It is a terrible mistake - as well as being wrong in itself - for the mainstream Left to abandon the robust defence of free speech. It leaves the Right to colonise the issue and gives authoritarians an alibi.

Nick Cohen @nickcohen4
True, and I'm sure the right will make them regret it. But no one can deny that progressives are eager to censor and regard even the mildest defences of free speech as suspect.

I've seen a lot of this, and I find it interesting, there is almost an implication that the right really has no interest in free speech that they are trying to create some sort of plausible deniability for when they show their true colours.

It's almost as if we are supposed to thing the left who is supporting this authoritarianism are still, really, the ones with their hearts in the right places.

I am very visually impaired so don’t often bother reading Long articles. However, I saw Pinker’s name mentioned and thought I’d add this interview to the discussion. I guess it’s on the same lines.

This BBC article re. detranditioning is really interesting and there’s a website link there too to a post trans site that looks great.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/stories-51806011